Mary, the Echo of God
Fr. Donald Macdonald, SMM
MARY, THE ECHO OF GOD
The two year old child often comes into the room where her father is watching tv. She switches it off and climbs on to his lap with a favorite book. The father may never know now whether, despite the odds, John Wayne saved the wagon train, nor the reasons for the rise of the Dow Jones financial index, but the behavior of his child gives him so much more. The child instinctively reflects a relationship of love and trust. Knowledge and love expressed in trust are the most precious of life’s possessions. Should that deepen and develop, the father has something beyond price, as has the child.
INTIMACY
St Paul sees something like this in his understanding of ourselves before God. “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God you have received a spirit of adoption. When we say, ‘Abbe! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Roms. 8:14-16).
Here the keynote is intimacy: “. . . because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ “ (Gals. 4:6). This was how Jesus himself taught us to approach “our Father”. Whatever is genuine between people is built on knowledge and love and expresses itself in trust. Precisely because we are made in God’s image this is so. Whenever we are truest to ourselves we walk that path. It is then that we radiate what has been revealed to us in God, Father, Son and Spirit.
It is God who invites us to be and share in the relationship of knowledge and love which is God’s being. We do not have the categories to grasp this, but on occasion, when the realization of what we are called to dawns, we can be taken out of ourselves in wonder and delight. For a moment, we become like what we see.
There may be ebb and flow in the relationship between God and ourselves as faith and conduct vary. We may feel at times that we are always coming from behind, or forever climbing uphill, never likely to rise above discouraging mediocrity. God is so far away. Such a perspective never came from God in Christ.
The Coronation of the Virgin Mary: French Painter: Enguerrand Quarton: 1452
Note: The Son is made in the image of the Father, so the Father and Son look alike. The Son sits at the right hand of the Father. The Holy Spirit’s wings touches the mouth of both the Son and the Father as they speak the Word of God. The Coronation scene is a common one in art. What is unique to this artist is painting the Father and Son alike. More common later, it was very uncommon in the 15th century.
“Mary was created only for God, and it is unthinkable that she should reserve even one soul for herself. On the contrary, she leads every soul straight to God and to union with him. Mary is the wonderful echo of God. The more a person joins himself or herself to her, the more effectively she unites them to God. When we say ‘Mary’, she re-echoes ‘God.’ ”
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SPIRIT-LED
“. . . the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the very Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words” (Roms.8:26). That is a superb insight and so encouraging. The initiative is always from God. The dynamic of our relationship with God lies in the gift of God’s indwelling Spirit, who enables us to articulate and respond to the gift of God in Christ. It is for us to make our own the love generated in us through the Spirit.
The child was drawn to climb on to her father’s lap with a favorite book because from experience she knew that she could enjoy this with her father. She had come to know, love and trust him. Similarly, if we spend time in the company of people who know from experience the love of God in Christ through the Spirit, we too can come to savor what they see. Knowledge, love and trust were not theoretical categories to the child. She found them in her father’s company even before she could articulate them.
WE MAY COME TO SEE GOD’S GLORY . . .
In the Catholic tradition, Our Lady does this for so many. Led by the Spirit, we may come to see more and more God’s glory radiating from her, and in time then become more and more like what we see. Others, it seems, see Mary as almost a nuisance, an unnecessary complication coming between God and ourselves. Yet viewed objectively in the providence of God, surely this cannot be.
The insights offered here are from family life and the experience of St. Paul. We learn from others as we learn of God, not least in an incarnational faith. The Spirit helps us in our weakness, as for example, in inviting us to share what St. Paul saw or the parent and child experienced. It is God’s Spirit which makes these come alive and enlighten us. Surely, the Holy Spirit was the source of what they too shared and found.
. . . RADIATING FROM MARY
The Holy Spirit overshadowed Our Lady with an abiding presence to such effect that, apart from the wonder of bringing Jesus into the world, even the sound of her voice was enough to communicate the Spirit’s presence in delight and astonishment. The key to effectiveness and influence is to be at one with the will of God, since in God’s world God’s will is the ultimate test of reality. Anything which it supports lasts. It is this that Mary reflects.
What must it say of her, for example, when we hear that, “. . . the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. . Now we have received . . . the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God”. (1 Cor. 2:10,12). The Spirit from the depths of God – fathomless, of course – to the depths within myself. In so far as that presence is unfettered we are able to see. There has never been anything contrary to God’s will in the person of Our Lady. She is therefore able to receive at a depth and so to radiate with a sensitivity quite beyond anything we could ever imagine.
GOD’S RELATIONSHIP . . .
The Spirit from the depths within herself at a level too deep for words, is thus able to offer something of the unfathomable riches of Christ, to whoever is open lo her influence. There is inspiration in thinking of her living by faith on earth yesterday, but surely so much more today if we are prepared to allow her into our lives, as Elizabeth once welcomed her into her home. In time, Mary’s name may do as much for us now, as her voice did then.
The child who began these reflections, may have been marginally inconsiderate, because of her age and inexperience. The best of us as adults has only partial vision too. We do not always behave correctly with God or one another. Yet, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, most of us have reason to thank God for some of the people we have met. For so many people in such a context, in every time and culture, Our Lady has an honored place.
. . . WITH US
In the relationship which is ours with God through knowledge, love and trust, “. . . God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given us”. (Roms. 5:5). To open ourselves to whatever influence Mary can bring to bear on us, can only help to intensify that reality. Her touch is so sure, radiating the Spirit as she does, that she can only draw us to be held by what attracts her – the glory of God on the face of Christ.
In her graced company, we can become like who she now sees! Perhaps we can leave the last word with a Saint for whom this was as true as his own existence: “Let us not imagine . . . that Mary being simply a creature would be a hindrance to a union with the Creator. Far from it . . . her transformation into God far surpasses that experienced by St. Paul. more than heaven surpasses the earth.
“Mary was created only for God, and it is unthinkable that she should reserve even one soul for herself. On the contrary, she leads every soul straight to God and to union with him. Mary is the wonderful echo of God. The more a person joins himself or herself to her, the more effectively she unites them to God. When we say ‘Mary’, she re-echoes ‘God.’ ”1.
FOOTNOTE
1 St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, The Secret of Mary No 21.
The Queen:
Vol #011 – November 2021
